Becoming a Family of Eight: The Evans' Family Adoption Story
When Tyler and Jessica Evans sat down for dinner with Wayne and Kelli Naugle eight years ago, Jessica didn’t realize their lives were about to change for the better.
The Evans family had recently moved back to Georgia from Massachusetts and reconnected with their longtime friends, the Naugles. At dinner, Tyler asked about Families 4 Families and the biggest foster care needs in Georgia.
“Wayne said, ‘It’s families willing to take on sibling groups because many children in foster care who have siblings end up getting split up,’” Jessica recalls. “My husband looked and me and he said, ‘We can do that.’
Before this conversation, the Evans family felt their family was complete with their biological son and daughter, but that night, Jessica and Tyler started the paperwork to become foster parents.
The day the Evans family were approved to open their home, Wayne reached out with news.
“Wayne called and said, ‘Congratulations! Keep an eye out. We’ll be sending you an email when we get a placement,’” she shared. “30 minutes later, he called to say, ‘We have a [potential] placement.’”
But when Jessica and Tyler learned more about the siblings needing a foster home, they realized their family wasn’t a good fit for all of the kids and made the hard decision to turn down this first opportunity.
“We cried and cried, but about an hour later, Wayne called back.”
A sibling set of three — one girl and two boys — needed placement, and as Jessica and Tyler read through the paperwork, they both agreed to welcome these little ones into their home.
“It was scary and exciting. We felt lots of fear and lots of hope,” she shared. “But I had to hold back my excitement when I saw these kids that we had been praying for because [the reason for our excitement] came with pain for them. They were scared. They didn’t know what to do.
“We got on the floor. We played with them and reassured them, and we ate cookies and played with Barbie dolls. It was beautiful and scary and wonderful all at the same time.”
As these three new little ones adjusted to life in the Evans family’s household, another change came the next year when the Evans family welcomed the siblings’ new baby brother. A few years later, the four siblings officially joined the Evans family through adoption.
Through this transition from two kids to five to six in a few short years, Jessica has been grateful for the ways Families 4 Families and her community surrounded their family.
“We went through some really hard things and dark days, but it’s really cool the way they step in, even if you adopt and close your home. You’re still family to them,” she shared. “No matter what time of day or night, they’re available.”
When one of Jessica’s children was in the hospital, her Families 4 Families caseworker was there to lighten the load.
“I just needed thirty minutes [of rest] because we couldn’t sleep at the hospital. Our case manager called and asked, ‘What do you need?’” Jessica shared.
When the case manager realized Jessica needed sleep, she jumped into action. “She said, ‘I’m on my way.’ She didn’t even ask, ‘Do you want me to come?’”
For Jessica, moments like these make her feel seen in “a world where [foster and adoptive parents] do feel unseen and unheard.”
She added, “God doesn’t call everybody to step into the world of foster care as a parent, but I believe He calls us all to step up in some way.”
Whether bringing a meal or stocking the freezer, babysitting or praying over the family, her community’s support helped Jessica through many difficult days.
“When you don’t have one more ounce of energy to stand in the kitchen and cook a whole meal, [someone bringing a meal] is so life-giving,” she said. “Or when the kids are having a hard day, you can put [a freezer meal] in the oven and sit on the floor with them and hug them or play a game and help them feel more secure.
“Others have said, ‘We’ve been called to help with foster care, but God didn’t call us to be foster parents. So we can serve you by watching your kids so you and your husband can have a meal together.’”
No matter where someone can step in, for Jessica, it’s “the little things that matter.”
Without her committed support system through Families 4 Families, Jessica isn’t sure what her family’s life would look like today.
“[This journey] was hard. It’s the hardest thing we’ve ever done, but they helped us walk through each moment, each step, each twist and each turn,” she shared.
“My life has been made better because of [foster care and adoption]. Because of Families 4 Families. Other people will say, ‘You all are such good people. Look at what you did.’ But we just opened our home. I feel that we got more out of [foster care and adoption] than we gave, and we’re better people now.”
